Jane Eyre Research Paper

Jane Eyre: The Feminist

Who is Jane Eyre? Jane Eyre was originally published as an autobiography. But in 1847 the English writer, Charlotte Bronte, rewrote this autobiography into a novel. It had many genres including gothic novel, social criticism, and Bildungsroman. According to Edsitement, Charlotte Bronte was “determined to create a main character who challenged the notion of the ideal Victorian woman.” (Edsitement 1) The novel begins as Jane being an orphan at the age of ten years old, living with her deceased uncle’s family who wanted nothing to do with her after her parents died. Her uncle had promised her parents that she would be well taken care of as if Jane was one of his own. When he was on his death bed, he made his wife promise

As Arvonne S. Fraser describes, “The original contributors to women’s human rights were those who first taught women to read, and thus, to explore the world outside the home and immediate community. This long debate has been broad and wide ranging because human life has so many facets. Much of the debate involved the traditional demeaning of women: a common, often subconscious, technique of one group seeking to maintain power over another” (Fraser 1). Charlotte Bronte is one of the best known authors/novelists of this nineteenth century period. She has not only described her views of feminism through her book, Jane Eyre, but has also showed great importance during the time she wrote this. According to Melissa Lowes, during the time when “women were considered little more than social adornments and bearers of offspring, Charlotte Bronte bravely contradicted society through her writing. Marriage was always a viable solution” (Lowes 1). She’s no like most women who married for looks and fortune. She would only marry a man she respected. Charlotte Bronte looked at life as though women had just as much freedom and power and independence as men did. She showed this in her book, Jane Eyre, when Jane the character says: “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will” (Bronte 268). “Charlotte Bronte withdrew from the world she

This book has meaning beyond that. Look at the time period of when this was wrote: nineteen hundreds. This was a period of women fighting for their rights. At this time women had no rights at all. They couldn’t own land, couldn’t vote, weren’t considered the ‘bread winners’ the only real job they could get was a governess, and more. When Charlotte Bronte wrote this book, this was the only way she could show her feelings and beliefs, and she showed these through her character Jane. Jane was a character of Bronte herself. Jane was a feminist which means that she believed women had just as much rights that men had. Jane, I would say, hated her life to the point until she started working as governess at Thornfield Hall. But I think she would rather live life alone and independently than marrying someone who she did not love or having to clean all day. She would rather earn her own living and provide for herself than marry someone who she did not respect and I totally